Iphone access to the file system. Slice the apples. What's inside the iOS file system

iTunes is, at times, an extremely inconvenient program. All sorts of synchronization, movie and music management - we can’t say that all this is implemented in the best possible way. About the difficulties of working with iTunes already there are many legends. Those who talk about a certain “slowness” of the application are also partly right. Often, you want to quickly transfer files to an iOS device and neatly organize everything into folders. You cannot, for example, view SMS messages or download music downloaded to your iPhone. But it doesn’t matter, that’s why third-party file managers were invented to work with iOS devices.

DiskAid is a file manager that provides access to content on your iOS gadget. Unlike iTunes, the program has several advantages. The application window is divided into two parts: left side– categories that you can switch between. They duplicate the standard ones iOS apps: photography, video, music, notes and so on. Right part– category content window. It displays content from the category selected on the left. For example, if you select a category with music on the left, then those downloaded to your iOS device will appear on the right. music files. The same is true for the other categories: select Camera Roll on the left, all photos on the right, Notes on the left, and their text on the right.

Of course, all data can be downloaded from the device. Photos, music, videos, etc. are “pulled out” in a couple of clicks, and you can copy them not only to local disk, but also immediately in iTunes. For many, “pulling” songs downloaded to their smartphone onto a guest computer is a big problem, which DiskAid solves in no time.

In addition, the smartphone does not need to be connected to the computer using a cable; one checkbox “Enable WiFi connection” on the application’s start window solves many problems. After enabling this option, the iOS device and your computer only need to be on the same network for them to communicate with each other.

But the most interesting thing that can really distinguish DiskAid from iTunes is viewing messages and call logs. The first possibility is convenient tool search necessary messages. If you forgot something that was once sent to you in an SMS message, use DiskAid and the built-in search to find necessary information possible in a matter of seconds. It’s the same with contacts; finding the right ones is not a problem.

It’s worth looking at it from the other side: what if your smartphone falls into the hands of an attacker? Even from a phone taken for a couple of minutes, you can quickly export all messages, which is not good, as you understand. Unfortunately, in in this case Locking your smartphone with a password won’t help either – DiskAid doesn’t give a damn about any passwords.

After reading this text, you have two options: if you are a simple user, you will have to watch your phone more carefully and not leave it unattended for a long time, and if you are an evil “hacker”, then now you know exactly how to quickly snatch it valuable information from any iOS device.

You can download DiskAid on the developer’s website (for OS X and Windows)

File managers There are already quite a few for the iPhone. Among this motley assortment there are both incompletely translated Chinese crafts and sophisticated specimens with dozens of different buttons. Their big comparative review We’ll leave it for later, but for now let’s turn our attention to the DiskAid program. It has two obvious advantages - ease of learning and use + cross-platform (new versions of the program are simultaneously released for Macs and PCs).

Let's not talk about the need to have file manager for iPhone - for owners of jailbroken devices, its absence negates all the advantages of the jail. But DiskAid is not a simple file manager. Its developers managed to do the impossible - it seems that their program would never have been able to receive approval from Apple, but in App Store The client for viewing files that you uploaded to the device has officially been released.

All you have to do is install the program, connect your iPhone to your computer and launch DiskAid. You will see this window:

The most important thing about it is the lower left corner. If your iPhone is jailbroken, then you can select the item in the drop-down list Root Folder- this will take you to the root of the iPhone file system.

Paragraph Media Folder- this is the /var/mobile/Media folder. It is notable for the fact that it stores music from the iPod, podcasts, voice notes and much more useful things.

Paragraph DiskAid Folder- this is exactly the folder that will be visible to you from the FileAid program on your iPhone.

The purpose of the buttons on top panel instruments are clear even without English captions. Let's just talk about useful button Bookmarks. Let's say you regularly need to look into the documents folder of one of the programs installed on your iPhone. Traveling through its depths, you will be surprised to find that in the folder /var/mobile/Applications there are not the programs themselves with readable names, but creepy-looking type identifiers 3A686EC7-17D6…. Already inside these folders are the programs themselves. So, so that you don’t have to remember where everything is hidden, you just need to go to the desired folder, open the bookmarks bar and click on the plus sign there.

Everything is great, of course, but there is a big drawback: DiskAid does not support access rights. This can seriously complicate your (and your iPhone's) life if you're dealing with system files. Therefore, we recommend using the program in conjunction with Cydia.

About DiskAid's younger brother - the program FileAid there's not much to say. Its story is sad - before, it actually allowed you to upload files via DiskAid to a special folder on your iPhone from one computer and access them on another. When you connect an iPhone to a PC computer, in Explorer you see its photo album as special folder. FileAid made it possible to see another folder there - in which all the uploaded files were located.

But recently, App Store censors finally realized their mistake and demanded that the ability to transfer files via USB be removed from FileAid. Now she has changed her name to and is no different from dozens of similar viewers. Files are now offered to be uploaded via Wi-Fi.

View supported:

• images (JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF), PDF
• documents Microsoft Office, iWork and OpenOffice, TXT, RTF
• audio MP3, AAC, ALAC, AIFF, WAV
• video MP4, MOV, M4V
• HTML web pages and Safari archives

One last thing: FileApp is free. DiskAid costs $9.90.

You've connected your iPhone or iPad to your Windows computer, but nothing Windows Explorer, nor in iTunes do you see everything that is in the memory of your device? So how to connect an iPhone or iPad like a regular external USB disk? And is this possible without jailbreak? Yes, using PhoneBrowse, for example.

PhoneBrowse is free tool for Windows, allowing you to view and manage files on iPhone, iPad and iPod without jailbreaking the devices. With this program, you can even add, delete or rename all types of files stored on your iOS device. All this in a rather simple but very pleasant user interface, stylized for Mac OS X.

Download and install PhoneBrowse on your Windows computer, connect your device, and off you go. The tool will automatically detect the connected device and scan it file system. You will then see five different tabs, the first of which displays general information about the connected device, including battery percentage, OS version and memory status.

The process of adding and deleting files through PhoneBrowse is simple and fast. For this purpose, the “Import” and “Delete” buttons are provided. And you can add it like separate file, and the entire folder. To copy files from the device to your computer, there is an “Export” button. You can also create new folders and rename files. You can also view through PhoneBrowse file structure installed applications.

As mentioned above, the tool is available for free and works on various Windows versions– from XP to 8 and 8.1.

Unlike Windows and Android, iOS does not have a file system accessible to users, but this does not mean that the iPhone or iPad cannot be used as a file manager. If your job involves processing files and documents that you need to upload, edit and forward, without third party applications you almost can't get by. Below we will look at several file managers for iOS devices that will help you work with documents.

In contact with

First, let's figure out what requirements a good file manager should meet. A good file manager should excel at the following functions:

Import: A file manager is required to quickly import files and documents, and the more import options, the better.

Control: A good file manager should give the user complete freedom of action with files. The user should be able to create folders, set tags, change the color indicators of files, archive folders, and much more.

Export: A file manager from which you can’t “get” anything is useless. Users should be able to export any file to another application for viewing and editing.

Documents 6 is the best third party manager files and documents for iPhone and iPad. The app is completely free and comes with every feature you can imagine. Documents 6 makes it easy to import files (from your computer, cloud storage, web pages, etc.) and manage them (drag, share, archive, tag, and more).

Documents 6 works great with all formats, including text, video and audio files. The application allows you to read books, listen to music, share files, view PDF, etc.

In the era cloud synchronization Data Documents 6 gives you a feeling of confidence that all your important files are stored locally on the device, and iCloud won't delete the old ones, but necessary photos if it suddenly ends free place. With Documents 6, you don't have to worry about Dropbox not syncing properly when you don't have a strong internet connection. Everything you need will always be at your fingertips.

Files from Apple

iOS 11 introduces a new Files application, replacing the outdated one iCloud Drive. For users Mac new the file manager may seem similar to Finder.

The Files app is built into iOS and allows you to connect to multiple cloud storage services within one app. If you are using several cloud services, such as iCloud, Dropbox, and OneDrive, and you want one central place where you can manage all the files stored in them, the Files app is just what you need.

As for importing files, the Apple application has a drawback here - the application does not have the ability to download files from the Internet or transfer via Wi-Fi. However, this shortcoming is fully compensated by the presence of a wide range of functions for managing and sharing files. For example, Files lets you drag and drop documents not only within the app (you can use this feature to add tags, mark favorites, and move files and folders) but also into and out of it.

Oldest Popular powerful tool for working with files, rated by millions of users.

If you frequently work with PDF documents on your iPhone or iPad, GoodReader is for you an indispensable assistant. The application allows you to import files from cloud storages, local servers or computer and sort into folders.

GoodReader makes scrolling through documents on your iPad a pleasure. Of course, smooth scrolling is not something out of the ordinary, but many applications fail to cope with this task. GoodReader is one of the few apps that will let you scroll through countless pages of multi-volume PDF documents without huffing or puffing.

Among other things, the application allows you to add annotations to documents. You can type text in the appropriate text fields or write manually using Apple Pencil. GoodReader also has the ability to add stickers to pages of PDF documents.

FileBrowser not only has features that no decent file manager would be without, but also the ability to connect to a remote computer and work with the files on it!

The application allows you to view, copy, move, download and upload, stream files between computers, servers, NAS drives and cloud storage without the need to download additional software. Geeks and system administrators will appreciate it.

FileBrowser supports huge amount various formats media files and documents.

It has everything you could possibly want from a file manager for iOS: access to remote computers, file servers and NAS, an interface for working with cloud storage and with files on your gadget, a built-in reader of all popular photo, audio and video formats, documents and PDF files.

When working with a jailbroken iOS device, problems may arise that can only be solved by modifying the files. And for this you need to know basic structure file system, understand where everything is and which files are responsible for what, where programs and tweaks are installed and how they interact with each other. We'll talk about all this.

Main directories and files

iOS - UNIX-like operating system and uses a very similar file system structure to UNIX and OS X. The "folder" here is called a "directory", and the file system "grows" from the root /. The ~ sign denotes the user's home directory. IN normal mode this is the directory /var/mobile/, in root user mode - /var/root. Some directories are standard for UNIX systems. This is /boot - here in UNIX the system kernel and RAM disk are located (in iOS the kernel is located in the /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches/kernelcache directory), /etc - settings for low-level services, /tmp - temporary files, /bin - commands to run using the terminal, /mnt - mount point for external file systems (flash drives, etc. are connected here).

The directories that are most interesting to us are /System, /Library and /var. This is where the operating system itself (the first directory), system data (the second), application settings and their data (the third) are stored.

Standard (pre-installed) applications are located in the /Applications directory. This is also where they are located executable files Cydia, Zeusmos and some other app programs that require a jailbreak to install. There are many more files here than there are icons on the iOS desktop, since some internal services are also located here, highlighted as individual applications(built into iOS Facebook service, Print Center and some others). On an unjailbroken device, this directory is updated only when the entire firmware is updated, but some applications from Cydia are installed in it, like the Cydia store itself.

Downloaded from App Store applications are stored in /var/mobile/Containers/Bundle/Application , each in its own subdirectory. The names of these subdirectories are encoded, and in order to understand what kind of application it is, you need to go into the directory and move to the next one. Applications installed from outside the App Store are also usually found here. Each application is assigned a subdirectory in the /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application directory, within which the application stores its settings and data created during operation. We will look at its structure in more detail later.

System updates are downloaded to the /var/mobile/MobileSoftwareUpdate directory. They can be removed via standard application"Settings". All wallpapers are stored in /Library/Wallpaper and system sounds- in /System/Library/Audio/UISounds, music and video from the computer - in /var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music.

The directory /var/mobile/Library/caches/com.saurik.Cydia is especially worth mentioning. This is where tweak deb packages are stored until Springboard is restarted. If you need to download a tweak to your computer, you can get it from here. Also, during installation, tweaks often create additional directories where they store their own data. Usually such directories are mentioned in the tweaks' documentation.

Programs for working with the device’s FS directly

There are several programs for working with the FS of a device after jailbreak.

• iTools is a program for Mac and Windows that allows you to add and delete files to the file system. This is where its functions end. An advantage for many may be the bookmarks bar to the left of the FS viewing window, where you can find programs, tweaks, ringtones or device wallpapers.
• iFunBox - has significantly more features. With its help you can create directories, delete, rename files or export them to a PC. The only thing that is surprising is the lack of search in the FS.
• Filza File Manager - allows you to view file metadata directly on the device, rename, move, delete them, and open many types of files. There is a built-in search for folders and simultaneous work with several files.
• iFile is superior to Filza in many ways File Manager. Some opportunities are only available after payment full version program, however, the interface in the utility is more convenient and understandable.

Of course, you can work with the file system using the terminal. There is full support UNIX commands, so that managing the FS will be very fast and convenient.

Application directories and sandboxes

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